.The people should be enabled to vote for the party of their choice without fear or harassment. Everyone needs to be serious about creating that kind of environment, because it is the minimum needed in a democratic society. People must be allowed, through impartial elections, to be the decision-makers. Sweet talk alone cannot help in this regard, we have to show our commitment in our actions.

The government that sought the people's mandate is also responsible for conducting free, impartial elections. There will be nothing more deplorable than if it is unable to fulfil the commitments it made. The existence of this nation will be threatened if, for any reason, impartial, democratic elections are not held. That is why we must all be vigilant in this regard.

We cannot allow the mistakes of past elections to be repeated this time. We have to get rid of all those weaknesses. The country's crisis can come to an end when we begin to function democratically and address issues in the economic and social sectors. That is what we need today to take the country out of the present crisis. Whoever may have caused it, our main problem today is lack of peace and security. The country has been terrorised by murder, terrorism, violence and acts of looting. The Congress government professes to be democratic, but it is not so in practice. It is dictatorial, and it has ignored the people's concerns, motivated as it has been in the past by the desire to win elections at any cost. It used the communications infrastructure and other government facilities to support the candidacy of particular factions within its own party. It misused state machinery and past elections were not impartial.

So this time around all sectors should initiate actions to prevent past malpractice from being repeated. We have to challenge those who are used to simply winning elections to face fair polls. We also need to put in place all the mechanisms needed to ensure free and fair elections. Undemocratic election practices are one of the factors that have brought the country to this pass, and those weapons we aimed at others in the past may backfire on us now. What is happening in the Congress now is also, in a manner of speaking, the result of such practices. The lack of a clean political process within the party has been one of the major reasons for its never-ending problems.